MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

9/7 Cubs head to NYC

After an off day, the Cubs head to New York for a three-game series against the Mets. This weekend also is the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. Most of the Cubs players said they will avoid going to Ground Zero in New York City this weekend.

The last time Reed Johnson visited the site was July 2000 at the All-Star break. He was playing for Class A Hagerstown at the time, and took his wife to New York. They went with a couple teammates and wanted to see the sights. One of their stops was the Twin Towers, and they went to the observation deck.

“We’ve got pictures from the top,” Johnson said. “It was a little more than one year before [9/11] happened.”

Johnson hasn’t been back.

“When you’ve gone there and seen [the Twin Towers], you don’t have an idea of how big those buildings are until you’re standing next to them or on top of them,” he said.

The Cubs won’t be able to avoid all the attention that New York will get this weekend.

“It always brings back memories and you see stuff in the paper — you see USA Today and they’re featuring the children of 9/11,” Johnson said. “Especially when you have your own kids, you realize what that did to so many families. On 9/11, it’s great to remember those people, but you wish it would carry farther into the year and not just on that date. I just hope it doesn’t lose it’s importance.”

He’d like to visit the memorial being built where the Twin Towers once stood.

“If we go back there on a different day, I’d go back to see the site,” he said. “I’m sure it will be crazy and tough to get around.”

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